As most of you already know, Copykill are back together and they're out for blood. The name of their latest full length, Fucking Restless, says it all. We thought it would be good idea to get in touch with the guys and check what they're up to nowadays. Here's the outcome!
As most of you already know, Copykill are back together and they're out for blood. The name of their latest full length, Fucking Restless, says it all. We thought it would be good idea to get in touch with the guys and check what they're up to nowadays. Here's the outcome!
As every now and then both "Victim Or Witness" and "Conceptions of Mayhem" get their share of spins in my CD player, I was really excited when I heard you’re planning to release new album. So what's the reason behind this move? When did you decide it’s time for Copykill to hit the stage again?
Boris: Well actually it was more of a party mood that we decided to run Copykill again. It was Kevin from End of Days' birthdayparty and we all got together and had some drinks and a good time. Then someone was joking around "hey, lets ressurect End of Days and Copykill and let´s do a split release!"... At that time End of Days were still broken up, my band that I was running at that time, Deadsoil, was more or less done anyway and Clobberin Time had a hard time. At first I wasn´t too much into the idea to do Copykill again but i figured that we all get along so well again now and the idea became serious after a couple of days. That was sometime at the end of 2008.
We all hit the rehearsal-room to pick up the old songs first and started to write new songs kinda quick. Mid 2009 we started to record five new songs and four old, overworked songs that would be our new record "fucking restless". Unfortunately the idea of doing a split release with End of Days didn´t work out yet, but we will see what the future holds for that!
So what’s been happening with band’s members since 2002 when Copykill was put to rest?
Boris: It was me who quit the band after some bad things happend to the band and things pushed up inside the band. After quiting, Chris, Stefan and Sascha decided to go on but chose another name, Clobberin Time was born. I had plans to do a more metal orientated band with some old friends of mine and we found Deadsoil. Since our friends in Drift - the band we did the split CD with - also broke up at the same time Copykill did, I asked Marcel to join Deadsoil on vocals what he did for some time. Holger who left the band some months before we broke up found Machinemade God.
How do you think the experience of playing in bands like Deadsoil or Clobberin Time added to the strength of the music you make with Copykill?
Boris: We all became more aware of how to write songs and how to run a band. Our Song writing became more mature due to the experiences that we all made by playing in all the other bands. You also learn how to set up your gear and how to play better live-gigs.
Your brand new album Fucking Restless has been released recently. How do you feel it compares with the rest of the Copykill catalogue? How do you see the evolution of the band?
Chris: As mentioned before, the song writing turned out to be more mature. We all worked in other bands until they split up, so we all brought new experiences into the song writing process.
We just wanted to start where we left in 2002. Again we wanted to bring the best of old school and metal -everything we like- back together into the new songs, like we did in the past and I guess this worked out very good. I guess we just do what we wanna do.
We don’t want to limit us to one special sound or style.
Sure we wont do some weird experiments and become a hardcore-metall-dancehall-whatever band I guess we just keep on writing music we love and we will see what the future brings.
How important is the message in the lyrics for you. Could you describe some of the principle themes that drive the Fucking Restless?
Chris: Lyrics are very important for me. Sadly most of the kids nowadays don’t notice the lyrics in a way I noticed them back in the days. Lyrics always were very important to me. The first thing I still do when I get a new cd or 7inch, is check the lyrics to the songs. I wanna know what drives the band and what message they wanna bring to the audience and listener.
We write lyrics about our daily life, things we see and feel. Some of the lyrics are pissed about nowadays society, how people close their eyes to the problems surrounding us all, some of the lyrics deal about friendship.
I use the Lyrics to show the listener some of my views and things that pisses me of in daily life. Some of the lyrics show the fear about death and the end of life. I see the world and the society like hypnotized roboters, controlled by the TV and media. We all must reflect ourselves and view how we live life everyday. I don’t want to be dictated by the media so for me theres nearly no tv. Mostly I use the Internet to inform myself and don’t watch all the crab on TV nowadays. All the fucked up shows like “Germanys next Topmodel” or “Germanys next superstar”, all this casting shows. I hate it.
So what is the writing process for you? Do you have a theme in mind or do you start with the music and then write the lyrics?
Tell me about Copykill’s performance element. During your sets, what type of response from the crowd you are most glad to get?
Chris: We don´t care how the crowd reacts when we play as long as they have fun and feel the energie. Everything is welcome, stagedives, singalongs, moshpits... you name it.
Do you ever notice an overly aggressive crowd? Does it get too violent?
Chris: The kids want to get their aggression out in a positive way. That’s what I did and that’s a good thing about hardcore and one thing that thrilled me nack in the days. First show I was and i saw the people get crazy and dance hard It really was a blast. I was so smashed that I wanted to go to the next show asap. Hardcore is a way to express yourself and the dancing at shows is one part of the scene. The people wanna fuck shit up and get all the negativity out in a positive way and not try to set up fights. But sometimes the wrong people come together and a fight breaks loose. Most of the time fights happen cous new people or people that aren’t involved into the scene don’t know how to act during a show. They stand in the first row and get pissed if they get hit. So when this happens many of the people in the audience try to explain them that they should better stand in the back. If they don’t wanna listen, okay their problem I guess. Everyday you learn.
You guys are proudly representing Ruhrport scene. What’s happening over there in terms of hardcore? What are the most active bands, labels and venues?
Boris: We are glad to be a part of the Ruhrpott Hardcore Scene! Its a good location to live at, you can reach everything really fast since we live close to the Netherlands, Belgium, France and also England is reachable within 5 hours. Some of the most active bands (not only Hardcore) from here are Black Friday 29, Caliban, Kreator, In Blood We Trust, Zero Mentality, Reduction, Fallbrawl, Blastout just to name a few. Even if Filled With Hate Records is not located in the Ruhrpott, they still are very connected to our scene, Rico 17Stiches frequently sets up very good organised and good frequented shows and festivals. The Proberäume in Duisburg is the hot stop for good shows. Also Marcel from RBS used to set up a lot of shows. We have a smaller label called "Massive Bloodshet Records" who for example released the Brothers in Crime CD. It really seems that it all is growing bigger again.
And what was life like growing up in Ruhrpott area? What are the best and worst aspects of life over there?
Chris: We all had the chance to grow up in one of the biggest parts of the german hardcore Scene. Every band back in the days and even now stops in this area during a European tour. So you get the chance to see a good show every week. Good aspects are like you heard, kinda every weekend a good show, you can reach many different countries fast and bad things ... hm I guess the same shit that goes on everywhere…
Could you give us the rundown, what do you have coming up? What’s next for Copykill?
We wanna play as many shows possible in 2010 and I hope we can bring you vinyl version of our new cd. I guess there will be a tour around June-Juli throughout Europe. So keep your eyes open for this.
If you wanna book us for a show just drop us a line.
Anything you’d like to say to the kids out there?
Support your local scene and keep hardcore alive and kicking! MOSH!
